Straws, such as 0.25 ml straws and 0.5 ml straws, may be used to transport and store biological products, biological materials, biological fluids, embryos, inseminate for the artificial insemination of an animal, semen, ova, or the like and may be cooled or super cooled for storage. Marking individual straws is often desirable for identifying the type of cells contained and their source.
Conventionally, straws may be serially processed through a printer prior to introduction of contents for storage. Straws are typically of very narrow diameter, ranging from 2 millimeters (“mm”) to 5 mm, and usually about 133 mm or about 280 mm long. Hence, the area on the external surface on which marks may be imprinted can be limited. The task of printing on straws may be unsuited for most types of impact printing, not only because of the non-planar surfaces to be imprinted, but also because the empty or fluid-filled plastic straws may yield or deform if subjected to localized pressure. Currently, printing on conventional cylindrical artificial insemination straws typically involves a mechanical system that accepts individual straws from a hopper containing a plurality of straws, and passes the straws length wise proximate the printer head of a stationary ink-jet printer. The printer head disperses ink droplets at appropriate volumes, trajectories and times to produce marks on one side along the length of the straw. This approach can produce visible marks with respect to the background color of the straw to assist in identification of the content of each straw. Marks typically applied to the straws which, for example, contain inseminates for artificial insemination provide characters which can identify the source of the semen, animal name, date, company information, freeze lot, and sex-selection characteristics such as being enriched for X-chromosome bearing sperm or Y chromosome bearing sperm, or the like.
However, there are substantial unresolved problems associated with marking straws with an ink-jet printer and with the resulting ink marks. One substantial problem with marking straws by ink-jet printer is that characters may not be sufficiently small and of sufficiently resolved to include all the necessary or desired information on the imprintable area of the straw. This problem may be exacerbated due to international trade requirements which now necessitate additional information on individual straws. Additionally, the current resolution and accuracy of ink-jet printing limits the complexity of the characters that can be printed on the straw and may not be suitable to print 1D, 2D, 3D or grayscale barcodes, logos, trademarks, or the like. Additionally, small variations in the speed at which straws pass the ink-jet printer head can result in mark distortions such as compressed, stretched, or variable contrast marks.
Another substantial problem with marking straws by ink-jet printer can be that ink jet printing is a once over process which precludes imprinting one straw multiple times. Conventional straw imprinters do not control straw orientation (rotation/roll) with respect to ink jet print head. Thus, straws cannot be preprinted with information constant between straws, such as company information, production location, trademarks, logos, or the like, and then reprinted at a subsequent date with information variable between straws such as bull code, lot number, date, or the like.
Another substantial problem with marking straws by an ink-jet printer can be that the imprinted information may not be permanent. Ink jet printer ink may be soluble in a variety of solvents commonly used in production of straws containing biological products such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, acetone, ether, or the like. Accordingly, information imprinted in ink jet printer ink can be readily removed by contact with such solvents. Similarly, information imprinted in ink jet printer ink can be removed by slight abrasion.
Another substantial problem with marking straws by ink-jet printer can be that consumables such as the ink-jet printer ink and thinner used to clean the ink jet printer may have a level of toxicity, can be spilled and time consuming to clean up, and can be expensive.
Another substantial problem with impact marking or ink-jet printer marking can be the relative ease in counterfeiting the marks by non-certified manufacturers. Conventional marking is relatively large and uncomplicated and does not include authenticity markings.
Another substantial problem with impact marking or ink jet printer marking can be the lack of raised surfaces. Accordingly, the marks cannot be interpreted by touch.
A wide variety of polymeric materials can be laser marked such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP), polyethersulfone (PES), polyphenalsulfide (PES), polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinylchloride (PVC) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). However, laser beam induced marking of certain configurations of polymeric members such as straws having an axial body defining an axial passage communicating between a pair of body ends continue to be marked by use of ink jet printers with ink-jet ink as above-described. In particular, straws used for the storage of biological materials such as sex sorted sperm, conventional semen, eggs, cells, embryos and similar cellular materials continue to be ink-jet printed.
Prior attempts to render a mark on such polymeric members by incidence of a laser beam resulted in marks which were too faint or resulted in brittleness, shrinkage, bowing, warping, or the like which made the polymeric member subsequently unsuitable for deposit of the biological material, filling with biological liquids, cryogenic freezing of the polymeric member containing the biologic material, storing, or handling.
The polymeric members and laser marking methods described herein address each of these substantial problems of the conventional straw marking.